Green Building Initiative

The Kresge Foundation retired its Green Building Initiative – its six year effort to encourage environmentally sustainable construction in the nonprofit sector – on May 29, 2009. Through the initiative, nonprofit organizations were awarded grants to cover the planning costs associated with constructing or renovating an environmentally responsible facility.

“The Green Building Initiative has served its purpose just as Kresge intended,” says Lois DeBacker, senior program director and Environment Program team leader. “The nonprofit organizations that received green planning grants and went on to construct green buildings raised awareness in the nonprofit sector, in the design and construction professions, and in the physical communities where these projects are located.”

The retirement of the Green Building Initiative, which was introduced in 2003, represents the evolution of the foundation’s efforts to advance environmental stewardship, one of the foundation’s nine core values and the overarching goal of its Environment Program. “The Environment Program’s new grantmaking approach will support policy changes to accelerate the adoption of energy-efficient practices in building construction, renovation, and operation,” DeBacker explains.

Kresge launched its Environment Program in 2007 and set three strategic priorities:

• Reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from the built environment
• Accelerate the adoption of renewable-energy technologies
• Develop strategies for helping society adapt to the impacts of climate change.

“The urgency of mitigating climate change has influenced our decision to move from a project-by-project approach to a broader, more systemic grantmaking scope,” adds Jessica Boehland, program officer for the Environment Program. “In the future, we anticipate supporting green buildings through policy-focused grants.”

The Green Building Initiative encouraged nonprofit organizations that were planning to erect new buildings or renovate existing ones to explore the merits of environmentally responsible design and construction.  Kresge awarded up to $100,000 per building for the incremental planning costs associated with following an integrated design process, undertaking energy modeling, and registering the building under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system.

Read more about the Environment Program.

If you have questions, e-mail our Grants Inquiry Coordinator or call 248-643-9630.